Cumulative cultural effects and reasonably foreseeable future developments in the Upper Thelon Basin, Canada

Four environmental assessments of small uranium exploration projects in Canada’s Northwest Territories resulted in recommendations to reject the projects. This result was based on potential cultural impacts of a cumulative nature, due largely to the spiritual significance of the setting in which the projects were proposed. A broad weighing of evidence with respect to reasonably foreseeable future developments played a role in these rejections. Four lessons of broad applicability to EIA practitioners are offered. One of these is: It is the scale of the issues, not the scale of the project, which may matter most.